Unfinished 1980's protos bieng completed by 2006 Homebrewers?

[rheffera]

Wouldnt it be cool if todays 2600 programmers got together and finished off protos like Snow White? Then we would have a working game! There is probably a down side im not seeing here...

[Crazy Climber]

I think there might still be copyrights involved with some of them, but I dont know. Its just a thought.

[jpfalcon2003]

I think there might still be copyrights involved with some of them, but I dont know. Its just a thought.

You probably are right about that one.

[Tempest]

It's not only things like copyrights (although that is a biggie). Many times games were only 50-60% finished, and only had a rough idea of the gameplay implimented. Today's programmers would have to guess on how the remaining gameplay would be implimented, and that's not an easy job. Not only that, but they also have to look through and pick up the original programmers code. I don't know about everyone else, but I find having to add onto other peoples code to be more difficult than writing my own code (especially when it's at this low a level). Adding the final 5-10% to a game is one thing, but finishing off the remaining 30-50% is another thing entirely.

 

Tempest

[Cybergoth]

I thought Snow White was already complete. At least I remember a boxed version being sold a few years ago.

[CPUWIZ]

I thought Snow White was already complete. At least I remember a boxed version being sold a few years ago.

 

Damn Germans.

 

LOL

[Rom Hunter]

A couple of years ago I finished writing a C64 game, I started programming back in 1988.

It was full of machine-code routines.

It took my a whole week to figure out my own coding, before I could continue with programming...

 

[Albert]

I thought Snow White was already complete. At least I remember a boxed version being sold a few years ago.

Yes, a boxed version was sold at CGE back in 2001 I think. But it was not complete. Most prototypes that have been released in such fashion have not been completed, but there have been exceptions. One was the Planet of the Apes prototype that a few people worked on to improve and turn into Revenge of the Apes, which was sold in boxed form. Thomas Jentzsch also helped us clean up the UA prototypes before we started selling them in boxed forms (with those it was just minor issues).

 

..Al

[Foxsolo2000]

I thought Snow White was already complete. At least I remember a boxed version being sold a few years ago.

Yes, a boxed version was sold at CGE back in 2001 I think. But it was not complete. Most prototypes that have been released in such fashion have not been completed, but there have been exceptions. One was the Planet of the Apes prototype that a few people worked on to improve and turn into Revenge of the Apes, which was sold in boxed form. Thomas Jentzsch also helped us clean up the UA prototypes before we started selling them in boxed forms (with those it was just minor issues).

 

..Al

 

So how exactly was Revenge of the Apes different from Planet of the Apes?

[Rom Hunter]

So how exactly was Revenge of the Apes different from Planet of the Apes?

It's 8K, it has a title screen and it contains music (made by Paul Slocom).

 

[mos6507]

I think the excitement prototypes as a way to bring new titles to the 2600 has peaked long ago due to how strong the homebrew community is.

 

When you compare an unfinished (or even a some finished protos) to homebrews, they usually come up short. So for history's sake it's good to see these things surface, but as gamers I think expectations have been raised.

 

That's not to say I wouldn't want to see Charlie Brown or Pink Panther, but I don't think people are quite so desperate for these things just to be able to play something new on their VCS.

 

Elevator Action is the only proto I'd really like to see polished up. Other protos may not have enough potential to be worth the effort, or they were so unfinished that a homebrewer could probably just redo it from scratch.

 

The work that was done to simulate the Turbo and Rubik's Cube 3D screenshots, for instance, show that there probably isn't anything technically in these protos that the homebrew community can't just as well do themselves. The only thing they can't do (safely) is wrap a game around a licensed property like many of these protos.

[Cybergoth]

Elevator Action is the only proto I'd really like to see polished up. Other protos may not have enough potential to be worth the effort, or they were so unfinished that a homebrewer could probably just redo it from scratch.

 

Fully agreed. Elevator Action would be my pick as well.

[Lord Helmet]

Elevator Action is the only proto I'd really like to see polished up. Other protos may not have enough potential to be worth the effort, or they were so unfinished that a homebrewer could probably just redo it from scratch.

 

Fully agreed. Elevator Action would be my pick as well.

 

That would be a good chice since whoever decided to finish it up wouldn't have to guess as to what the gameplay was supposed to be. They need look no further than the arcade game

[+johnnywc]

Elevator Action is the only proto I'd really like to see polished up. Other protos may not have enough potential to be worth the effort, or they were so unfinished that a homebrewer could probably just redo it from scratch.

 

Fully agreed. Elevator Action would be my pick as well.

 

That would be a good chice since whoever decided to finish it up wouldn't have to guess as to what the gameplay was supposed to be. They need look no further than the arcade game

 

I was 1st in line at CGE 2K1 to pick up this game. I must say that the game has so much potential that it was disappointing that it wasn't finished. It's very close (about 80% IMO). So close it may have inspired me to do something about it...

[Josh]

Yeah,

I'd Go With GLCB Or Elevator Action

[Cybergoth]

I was 1st in line at CGE 2K1 to pick up this game. I must say that the game has so much potential that it was disappointing that it wasn't finished. It's very close (about 80% IMO). So close it may have inspired me to do something about it...

 

I always thought to at least have a look wether it can be tweaked to run without Sara, so that no more Dig Dugs will have to be slaughtered.

[+Omegamatrix]

I thought Snow White was already complete. At least I remember a boxed version being sold a few years ago.

Yes, a boxed version was sold at CGE back in 2001 I think. But it was not complete. Most prototypes that have been released in such fashion have not been completed, but there have been exceptions. One was the Planet of the Apes prototype that a few people worked on to improve and turn into Revenge of the Apes, which was sold in boxed form. Thomas Jentzsch also helped us clean up the UA prototypes before we started selling them in boxed forms (with those it was just minor issues).

 

..Al

 

So how exactly was Revenge of the Apes different from Planet of the Apes?

IIRC the pictures they show are in double resolution. I remember Andrew Davie discussing it in some thread. The idea was to "trick the eye" by displaying alternating scan lines of color and they would blend into one color. Looks neat and gives the 2600 double resolution. Download the rom and take a look.

 

BTW if my explanation is not technically right please correct it. I just remember it as I thought it was really cool to see.

[+johnnywc]

I was 1st in line at CGE 2K1 to pick up this game. I must say that the game has so much potential that it was disappointing that it wasn't finished. It's very close (about 80% IMO). So close it may have inspired me to do something about it...

 

I always thought to at least have a look wether it can be tweaked to run without Sara, so that no more Dig Dugs will have to be slaughtered.

 

I have looked at the SARA RAM usage - it looks like it's using about 50 bytes. The 128 bytes of normal RAM is maxed out. Not sure if it would be possible to tweak it, it would probably require a rewrite of the kernel. I'll give this a shot (I have the source about 50% commented) but it will have to go on my ever-growing list of projects..

[shadow460]

Here's what I feel like would be the ultimate prototype finishing challenge:

 

Complete or remake the 2600 port of Tempest.

[+johnnywc]

I'd like to see the Sinistar proto finished and tweaked a bit. Also, the Xevious proto shows great promise.

[Godzilla]

Man, I'd love to see Elevator Action finished. I was so impressed with what was done in the proto (I got one too.) it's just so painfully close to finished.

[Cybergoth]

I always thought to at least have a look wether it can be tweaked to run without Sara, so that no more Dig Dugs will have to be slaughtered.

I have looked at the SARA RAM usage - it looks like it's using about 50 bytes. The 128 bytes of normal RAM is maxed out. Not sure if it would be possible to tweak it, it would probably require a rewrite of the kernel. I'll give this a shot (I have the source about 50% commented) but it will have to go on my ever-growing list of projects..

 

Wow! It should be interesting to analyse what all the RAM is used for. Just from playing the proto, it looks like it should nowhere require more than 128 bytes. Maybe they just wasted away with it, because they had it?

[SteveW]

Here's what I feel like would be the ultimate prototype finishing challenge:

 

Complete or remake the 2600 port of Tempest.

 

I'm wondering if the game could have been done on the Supercharger. Their knock-off of Asteroids was so good they had to change the concept to keep from getting sued. Suicide Mission was impressively vector-like. I'd love to see a multi-load version of Tempest done in the same style and with a few more boards to play stored on the cassette. Anything would be better than the prototype Tempest's 'underpants' shaped playfield.

[Godzilla]

"prototype Tempest's 'underpants' "

 

hey don't talk aboot tempest's pants like that! Without him we'd have a lot less proto-knowledge than we do! :-)

[Lord Helmet]

I'd like to see the Sinistar proto finished and tweaked a bit. Also, the Xevious proto shows great promise.

 

Sinistar is pretty good as it is, maybe a little to easy though. It's got to be like 95% done.